Union in the Central Mountain against the Abano Wind Farm

The old schools of Villalfeide this Thursday they hosted an information meeting for residents affected by the projected Abano Wind Farm, which affects land in the municipalities of Valdelugueros, Valdepiélago, Matallana de Torío and Cármenes, with an expected production of 76.5 megawatts and 17 ‘mills’.

The first good news was the neighborhood interest because, given the significant attendance, it was impossible to maintain the required distances, so it was decided to hold the assembly for those who had traveled from other towns and to convene another for this Friday with the residents of Villalfeide, which they do not have to move.

The person in charge of giving the information was Esther Domínguez Jové, president of the La Valcueva Neighborhood Board, with which Villalfeide neighbors contacted, it seems that due to the “disinterest” of the president of her town, “who of course was invited but has not come.” It took a few minutes for the meeting to start because a neighbor did not understand what people who were not from Villalfeide were doing there and, furthermore, what she wanted to know was “what the town of Villalfeide was going to charge.”

Once the obstacle was overcome, the meeting began with the gratitude of those present to the aforementioned president of La Valcueva who had taken the trouble to “read, break down and summarize a cumbersome 180-page project, with their corresponding reports ”to present them to interested neighbors. “It is not about convincing to say yes or no, but about informing, even if I have an idea of ​​my own.”

The first thing he regretted was the lack of information because, he recalled, “this project has been known since January 31 and nobody has said anything,” adding that “the Neighborhood Councils have been denied despite being the owners of the land, something that is worrying because a project of Ministry, not from the JuntaAnd it seems that they neither know nor want to know about our existence, although at some point they will have to negotiate the project with us ”.

Jové explained that the creation of this Eolico Park will mean a major damage to montes from the region: “There are 17 mills, with more than 50 kilometers of underground and aerial cables, a substation; it will affect 1,472 hectares of land, which will be crossed with 25 kilometers of six meter wide roads ”, were some of the data that he offered to add that, for example,“ the towers of the mills will be almost 200 meters high; 125 of the ‘body’ of the mill and another 72 meters measured by the blade; which makes its visual impact visible from 24 kilometers ”, according to the company’s own report; or companies, as there are two that usually end up being divided into numerous “companies”.

Other ‘secondary effects’ were discussed, such as “oil and hydrocarbon leaks during construction, alteration of the habitat of animals, especially birds, with a high risk of mortality when colliding with the blades; they are also very harmful for beekeepers and the noise from these facilities should be added… apart from the fact that if the mountain is declared for industrial use it would suffer irreparable destruction ”.

Among the attendees, the idea that these parks, there are more projected, another very close in The Robla, are again “compensation for the closure of the La Robla Thermal Power Plant. It’s the old story Riaño was the payment to LemonizAbano will be from La Térmica … and here we always pay the same ”, said one of those present.
How the issue of money had already come out from the beginning Esther Domínguez revealed that, for example, “for 5 mills they would pay between 50,000 and 80,000 euros a year; and the jobs they create are 10, but of specialists, which excludes the neighbors ”. All 17 mills they are distributed, according to the project, between Matallana 5 (4 in La Valcueva); 1 in Valdelugueros; 1 in Valdepiélago and 5 in Cármenes, in the Valle del Marqués area.

The general feeling was that they had gone from “it seems like a very good initiative”, linked to clean energy, to “what a fear it is, it could be our tip” because the report itself is supposed to be heeled towards optimism, he writes when talking about the positive aspects that “contribute to stopping the Rural exodus in a mild way ”. And Jové said that she had contacted rural areas with wind farms “and the population had decreased by half since its creation.”

The platform for the future of the central mountain is born

At the same event, and at the request of the attendees, although Esther Domínguez Jové had already confirmed that the necessary steps were being taken, it was decided to create the Platform for the Defense of the Central Mountain, “open to all types of interested parties, from individuals to associations of the region, industrialists, neighborhood councils, town halls … ”. It was surprising that there were no public representatives because there were only the aforementioned president of La Valcueva, a member of the Villalfeide Neighborhood Council and another from Correcillas. “The doors are open,” said Jové, who is emerging as the president of the Platform as soon as it is legally constituted.

For now, they are already getting to work, collecting signatures, informing people from people … “we are on time and we will not lose a day.”

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